“I have known David for several years, and he’s a
staple at the courthouse,” said Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, testifying as a defense witness. “And he has been a positive influence as it relates to certain investigations that go on from a district attorney’s perspective.”

“Would you say generally that he was well known and well liked in the Dallas County Courthouse?”

“Yes,” the DA said.

“Folks down there think a whole, whole lot of him. Is that fair?”

“He’s been real respected, yes.”

We can’t know what was said next, because U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn sealed that part of the hearing transcript.

The transcript does show that two other prominent courthouse figures also appeared in support of Wells that day, although they didn’t testify: criminal defense lawyers Manny Alvarez and Keith Dean, who previously served as state district judges.

Alvarez presided over the 1996 cocaine possession trial of another famously troubled Cowboys receiver, Michael Irvin. Wells was Irvin’s bodyguard back then (which was long before Watkins became DA). And Irvin’s defense attorney was state Rep. Royce West — who is now representing Dez Bryant.

Wells was not charged in that matter, for reasons that remain unclear. He told me in 2005 that he had no knowledge of any tampering — but he also insisted, incorrectly, that no jury was chosen before Irvin pleaded no contest and was sentenced to probation. Irvin and West also said they knew nothing about possible tampering.

Irvin changed his not-guilty plea in a deal with the DA’s office while Alvarez was deciding whether to let jurors hear from a topless dancer named Rachelle Smith. Outside the jury’s presence, she testified that Irvin had acknowledged the cocaine possession and previously supplied her drugs at sex parties.

Here’s more from my 2005 story:

She also testified that the star met with her three times before the trial, had her strip-searched for microphones and pressed her to quit cooperating with prosecutors. A man she didn’t know accompanied Mr. Irvin at the third meeting, Ms. Smith said.

She quoted Mr. Irvin as making this threat in the mystery man’s presence: “If I suspected you’re wired or that you’ve screwed me over, you’ll never see [your boyfriend] or the light of day again. I can promise you that.”

According to published reports, prosecutors agreed not to pursue witness-tampering charges against Mr. Irvin as part of the plea bargain.

Ms. Smith’s boyfriend was Dallas police Officer Johnnie Hernandez. After he heard that Mr. Irvin had threatened her, he hired a man — an undercover federal agent, as it turned out — to kill Mr. Irvin. Mr. Hernandez admitted soliciting the hit, spent 2 1/2 years in prison and could not be located for comment recently.

The man who accompanied Mr. Irvin has never been identified before. According to John Read, one of Mr. Hernandez’s attorneys, he was David Wells.

When I told Alvarez in 2005 that Wells had been taped talking about possible contact with the juror, the then-judge replied: “That’s not the person that I’ve known.” He added: “You’re not going to get a more stand-up guy than him.”

My 2005 story also noted that “Mr. Wells was convicted in 1990 of stealing a pair of boxing gloves from the Police Athletic League, which contributed to his firing from the Dallas Police Department’s community-affairs office and his lifetime ban from amateur boxing.”